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“We’ve cut back dramatically. I mean we never go out to dinner unless we go to somebody’s house.

"We never go to restaurants. That’s too extravagant. We invite people here. I cook. Well, if I’m giving a dinner party I get in help.”

Princess Michael of Kent (pictured right with Prince Michael of Kent)on how she's coping in the age of austerity(December).

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“There is so much focus on what we call savings accumulation, but what’s the point of triple locking the front door when you are leaving the back door open for burglars.”

An unnamed expert who gave evidence to the Financial Services Consumer Panel on why annuities, which provide retirement income, are such bad value. (December)

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"I think it's artificial and can't be sustained. People's incomes are falling in real terms, and have done so for five years. Now there's been this sudden, go on let's just go mad because everyone says its recovery. At a fundamental level it's quite dangerous because household debt is still 153pc of GDP.

"There's nothing seriously underpinning this recovery, and that's why it's Alice in Wongaland. The confidence fairy is out there."

Ann Pettifor of Prime Economics on a recovery based on more borrow and spend. (August)

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"We need a form of collective national hypnosis to ensure that when people walk into their bank and see 'adviser', they read 'salesperson' instead."

“With regard to Africa, the fund industry is criminally non-innovative. [Fund managers] are actually paid to invest money according to their principles, so how can they justify ignoring one billion people in the world’s fastest-growing markets?”

Bob Geldof in an interview with the Financial Times on why fund managers are wrong to endure "endless hardship to get to Asia” and China when they should be looking to Africa. (July)

Lord Lee, writing in The Telegraph on how he became one of the UK's first Isa millionaires. (November)

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“It would be completely insane to mess with Isas. Until now they have avoided the tinkering that seems to happen every year with pensions. Isas have cut a steady path. There are none of the complications that surround pensions.

Rebecca O’Keeffe, head of investment at Interactive Investor, on news that Treasury officials were quietly testing the idea of a £100,000 Isa cap amid concerns about "Isa millionaires". (October)

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"With an ageing population and pension fund liabilities that are therefore stretching out for many decades, surely the current focus on quarterly capitalism is becoming increasingly unfit for purpose."

The Prince of Wales addressing the pensions industry at a conference. (October)

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"I have done my best to suppress any pictures of myself whilst at university. They were neither attractive nor edifying and frankly a waste of good film. I can look back now at a period of life which was low on academic effort (as my tutors will readily attest), even less on personal responsibility, and close to zero on financial understanding."

Stockbroker and well regarded financial pundit Justin Urquhart Stewart writing for The Telegraph on the three things he would tell his 18-year-old self. [September]

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"Any government that consigns this crucial service to British-style private ownership – for a mere £3bn with 10pc of shares given free to workers as a blatant bribe – is as short-termist as the stock market."

Will Hutton, economist and columnist, on the sell-off of the Royal Mail. (July)

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"I don't see what we're being given back. What does he [the taxman] give you back? I drive down the road, there's more holes in the road than there are in a tennis racket, and we've got no hospitals, we've got fire stations closing down. I can see myself leaving here quite soon, actually. I love this country, but I've had enough of it, I don't see what we're being given back. I just see the country being raped."

Actor Ray Winstone speaking to talkSPORT radio about the level of tax in Britain.

Ray Winstone in Great Expectations

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"Toxoplasmosis does strange things to mice. It compromises their immune system and makes them lose their fear of cats. If they were fund managers they would have had a fantastic year... It will all end badly; the mouse will die of course but... in this environment the actual price of an asset no longer has anything to do with our qualitative perception of reality: valuations are out, liquidity in. In the wacky world created by such monetary fidgeting there is one reason for being long markets and one alone: sovereign nations are printing money and prices are trending. That is it."

The formerly "ultra-bearish" Hugh Hendry of Eclectica Asset Management writing for the FT on why shares will keep on rising. [December]

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"Over the gloriously hot summer of 1976 the price of a troy ounce of gold melted from $187 to $105 before beginning its ascent to $850. The recent move from the August 2011 peak of $1,908 to under $1,300 seems to be a similar test of resolve, and we have begun to increase our holdings on weakness."

"I feel it does not matter so much right now which shares one owns. The important thing is to be in shares at all. A rise to the highs of 2007 – around 6,700 – seems probable. It would not be surprising to see the index challenging its all-time high of almost 7,000 by the end of the year... Frankly, I feel it does not matter so much right now which shares one owns. The important thing is to be in shares at all."

James Bartholomew's Diary of a Private Investor when the FTSE 100 was at 6228 in February. It has since risen to 6660.